Blow to UK renewables as plan for Europe's largest windfarm is scrapped.

FT: “Plans for Europe’s largest wind farm off the north Wales coast have been scrapped after Celtic Array, the joint venture between Centrica and Dong Energy of Denmark, said the project was “economically unviable”.”“The announcement is the latest setback to the UK offshore wind sector, which has been hit by engineering difficulties, concerns at the impact on shark and bird habitats, and uncertainties about financial support after the coalition tightened its subsidy regime.
It is particularly significant because the Conservative-led government has turned down an increasing number of applications to build onshore wind farms in the past year amid hostility from rural voters, leaving offshore projects as the main hope for wind power.
Celtic Array was formed to deliver the Rhiannon project, 12 miles off the Anglesey coast. It had promised to generate 2.2 gigawatts of electricity from its 440 turbines, making it Europe’s largest wind farm. It would have powered 1.5m homes.
Centrica said it had reviewed the economic viability of Celtic Array, and following discussions with the Crown Estates and its partners in the project, Dong Energy, development activity had stopped. It attributed the decision to “challenging ground conditions”.
The seabed in the area is comprised of different types of rock and sand, meaning additional complexity and cost for the construction of footings for wind turbines.
….Rhiannon would have been the second large wind farm off the north Wales coast, with the German power company RWE building the 576-megawatt Gwynt y Môr array between Anglesey and the Isle of Man. This should be completed by the end of this year.
Last November, RWE pulled the plug on its £4bn Atlantic Array wind farm off the Devon coast, saying it was “uneconomic”. In December, Centrica sold its Race Bank offshore project off the Norfolk coast to Dong Energy for £50m. The same month, Scottish Power scrapped its Argyll Array project off Scotland’s west coast, citing problems with basking sharks and a rocky seabed.
In February, Dong and other companies building the London Array ditched a second phase of the project, largely because of uncertainty over the effect on birds, and SSE announced it was scaling back its commitment to several wind farm projects.”